University of Detroit Jesuit High School has announced two bequests totaling $10 million in support of scholarships.

The gifts of $5 million each from the estates of alumnus Leonard Scherock ('59) and Nicholas Labedz, a friend of the school, are the largest estate gifts in the school's 145-year history. Scherock, who went on to earn his medical degree at Wayne State University School of Medicine and specialized in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine, had credited the high school for laying the foundation of his lifetime achievements and wanted to leave a legacy to give other young men the same life-changing opportunity. He died in April 2020 at the age of 78.

Labedz made the bequest in honor of his lifelong friend and business partner, Richard Mazurek, a 1954 graduate of U of D Jesuit. Before his death in May 2019 at the age of 86, Labedz had made it known that he loved the mission of the school and wanted to help students in need, and his gift will go toward tuition assistance for those students.

"The donations from these two remarkable people strengthen our ongoing renaissance," said U of D Jesuit president Theodore Munz. "With these gifts our endowment will be stronger, thus allowing us to offer tuition assistance to more deserving young men. The estate gifts, combined with recent donations for our campus expansion and our fiscal stability, indicate that people are eager to invest in Jesuit education in Detroit."